The present invention relates to a supporting mechanism for a sound generator of a musical instrument, and more particularly relates to improvement in acoustic performance and operability of a mechanism for mounting a tubular sound generator to a stand of a percussive musical instrument such as a chime, i.e. a tubular bell.
A percussive musical instrument of the above-described type generally includes a number of juxtaposed, tubular sound generators, i.e. sound tubes, mounted to a stand which is made up of a pair of side posts and a hanger bar horizontally spanning top ends of the post.
In the construction of a conventional supporting mechanism for mounting each sound tube to the stand, a tension wire is used. More specifically, a pair of radial holes are formed diametrically through the top end of the sound tube and the tension wire past through the radial holes is fixed to a hanger pin arranged on the hanger bar. Stated otherwise, each sound tube is bound at its top end to the hanger bar by assistance of the tension wire and the edge of a head plug at the top end is struck with a hammer.
Such a conventional construction of the supporting mechanism, however, is inevitably accompanied with drawbacks in acoustic performance and operability due to presence of the radial holes and use of the tension wire made of steel.
It is well known that tone quality and scan of sounds generated by a percussive musical instrument such as a chime is much swayed by the mechanical design of its sound tubes such as the length, the diameter and the wall thickness. Subtle change in mechanical design and/or beating position would wield a great influence on the nature of sounds to be generated.
In the case of the conventional supporting mechanism, presence of the radial holes for the binding wire tends to pose uncontrollable influence on the quality of sounds. In addition, the above-described binding system by the tension wire limits the mounting position of each sound tube to the stand and such a positional limit does not allow free choice in beating position around the edge of the head plug. As a consequence, choice in tone colour of sounds generated is much limited.
Further, it is highly difficult in practice to pull the thin steel wire at a high tension for mounting of each sound tube to the hanger bar of the stand. In addition, the tightly scanned wire tends to break during performance of the percussive musical instrument.